Being a fascinatingly unique composer, Olivier Messiaen pushed the conventions of composing to its very limits. The composer's music remains ever-popular and his Treaty of Rhythm, Colour and Ornithology provides the key and necessary knowledge in to the study of his delightful music.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the mere age of 11, where he won many prizes. As a passionate ornithologist, as well as organist and composer, many of Messiaen's works depict birdsong. His music is rhythmically complex, harmonically unique and melodically distinct, often using modes of limited transposition. It is for these reasons that the composer compiled his Treaty. The fifth volume contains text with musical examples, describing the unique use of birdsong in his music, as well as an analysis of his Japanese Sketches for Piano and Orchestra. For all fans of Messiaen, Treaty of Rhythm, Colour and Ornithology is essential to the understanding of the composer's much loved music.